This invention relates to integrated circuit nonvolatile memories, and in particular to flash memories. Flash memories are electrically erasable nonvolatile memories in which groups of cells can be erased in a single operation.
Numerous types of integrated circuit memory are now well known, as are processes for manufacturing them. One particular type of integrated circuit memory is nonvolatile memory. Nonvolatile memory is referred to as such because it does not lose the information stored in the memory when power is removed from the memory. Nonvolatile memory has many applications in products where the supply of electricity is interruptable. For example, one well known product employing flash memory is PCMCIA or PC cards. PC cards are small credit card-sized packages that contain nonvolatile memory within which a computer program or other information is stored. Such devices allow the user to connect and disconnect the memory card from a computer or other electronic apparatus, without losing the program stored within the memory card.
Nonvolatile memory devices include read only memories (ROM), programmable read only memories (PROM), electrically erasable read only memories (EEPROM), as well as other types. Within the field of electrically erasable programmable memories, a certain class of devices is known as flash memory, or flash EEPROMs. Such memories are selectively programmable and erasable, typically with groups of cells being erasable in a single operation.
In conventional flash memories, each memory cell is formed from a transistor having a source, drain, control gate and floating gate. The floating gate is formed between the control gate and the substrate. The presence, or absence, of charge trapped on the floating gate can be used to indicate the contents of the memory cell. Charge trapped on the floating gate changes the threshold voltage of the transistor, enabling detection of its binary condition.
In most flash memories, charge is placed on, or removed from, the floating gate by operating the memory at conditions outside its normal operating conditions for reading its contents. For example, by adjusting the relative potentials between the gate and the source, drain or channel regions, charge, in the form of electrons, can be caused to be injected onto the floating gate, or removed from the floating gate.